Headcanon Corner!

[HighColorSunset]

Here's just a place you can post headcanons for whatever. A headcanon dump, if you will.

Here are some about Octarians:
-Other than the military rations one might expect, they eat a lot of plant-based foods and seafood, which is often pickled or frozen to preserve, as well as grains like bread, cereal and noodles. A lot of Octarian dishes are based on these. There aren't many sweet dishes other than certain fruits, which are eaten raw or dried, and many Octarians have never tried certain things, such as chocolate. (In real life, many Russians have never tried peanut butter!)
-Octolings who are hatched from eggs have parents; those who are really "stretched" tentacle Octarians do not.
-Free Octolings tend to have longer hair than soldier Octolings, as those still in the army are required to cut it for two reasons: to create Octotroopers, and to keep it from hindering the mission. They generally have shorter but thicker hair than Inklings.
-Most Octolings speak with accents in Inkling, unless they were raised in Inkopolis or are incredibly fluent in the language. Even Marina has some pronunciation issues, and she's been on the surface for 2 years.
-Because of this, some Inklings think Octolings talk weird; others love the accents and find them attractive. Many Octolings find that strange, and would rather not "say it again" after asking for directions to Grizzco. :P
-Weather in Octo Valley is generally cool and damp, being underground. Even on cold nights, Octarians continue working. Being octopuses, they can withstand the cold fairly well, though they still get shivery wearing so little. Octolings often heat water or make a fire to warm up afterwards, especially if they left their jackets in their sleeping quarters.
-Octolings tend to prefer the cold and dislike hot weather, so they are grateful for Inkopolis' mild, breezy weather, as it isn't too hot and the breeze is cooling.
-Octarian is an interesting and challenging language to learn, with unique grammar rules and pronunciation to Inkling, as well as a pitch accent, which Inkling has less of.

 

[Sir Ngyes]

Okay, so about the Salmonids...
- War is all Salmonids have ever known, and their culture is centered around it.
- Salmonids supply their own weapons, and some are passed down as heirlooms.
- Since Salmonids have to supply their own weapons, boss Salmonids mainly consist of aristocrats as their equipment is very expensive.
- After emerging victorious from battle, a big celebration takes place at the fatherland, which involves makeshift fireworks, noisemakers, and parades.
- Their society is basically Ancient Rome, but everything is made of scrap metal found on beaches or floating around in the ocean.
- Golden Eggs are actually unhatched Salmonlings. Each individual egg is extremely valuable, and due to their rarity, only the strongest Salmonids are trusted to care for them until they can be sent back to the seclusion of the fatherland, where they are forbidden to leave for the sake of their species.
- While Salmonlings alone are a rarity, there is only a 1/10 chance of them growing into a bipedal Salmonling. Other Salmonlings resemble mermaids and although they can swim in water, they cannot swim in ink.
kthxbye

 

[Cephalobro]

Here are some for the Inklings as well:

-Inklings are very impressionable even in their old ages, although, more resistant the older they get.
-Some Inklings mistake the squid forms as babies when they never see the Inkling in humanoid form.
-They are easily distracted by anything new, and when that new thing becomes outdated, it isn't long before they get interested in something new.
-Inkling body-type doesn't change much when they age, it's only when they start reaching their old ages that their bodies change dramatically to be extremely skinny. In speaking about old age, Inklings very rarely change into their squid forms when they're old because generally, their bodies can't handle it anymore. Another thing about old age is that their head tentacles will start becoming white very slowly, as such, it's difficult to tell a 30-year-old Inkling from a 60-year-old Inkling if you don't look at their tentacles.
-Inklings evolved to be an ovoviviparous species, as such, female Inklings have their eggs developing inside their belly and the egg-laying does not happen until the egg is a few days away from hatching, where they turn into their squid forms to lay the egg, this is when they and their husbands guard the egg until the egg hatches.

A few more Octarian headcanons:

-Octolings are worshiped as the creators of life and are highly respected because of that.
-Because they are highly respected, the Octarians are actually really uncomfortable with sharing the cycle involving egg hatching because any potential enemy could target the Octolings specifically.
-Speaking about the cycle, Octolings who hatch from eggs share the exact same development cycle as Inklings, except starting as a baby octopus instead of a baby squid.
-Male Octolings was originally another group that Octarians did not want anyone else to know about, but due to the great increase of the Octoling population in Inkopolis, they gave up on keeping them a secret.
-While tentacle Octarians do follow orders without question, they also have minds of their own and can quickly adapt to situations where they are not led by anyone. Not to mention, they have the capability to talk and communicate.
-Much like Inklings, Octolings have now become an ovoviviparous species and exhibit the same defensive behavior when it comes to their eggs. Female Octolings also go through the same egg developing phases the same way as female Inklings and turns into their octopus forms to lay the egg a few days before it hatches. The parents of the egg also exhibit highly defensive behavior when they guard the egg, however, they are also defensive for cut off tentacles whether the tentacle is from the mom or the dad, and will keep the cut off tentacle with the egg side by side.

In general reproduction, both Inklings and Octolings engage in Ovoviviparity, where the males fertilize the females' eggs the same way mammals do since both species now can't rely on ocean currents anymore.

 

[agent8(hachi)]

Okay, so about the Salmonids...
- War is all Salmonids have ever known, and their culture is centered around it.
- Salmonids supply their own weapons, and some are passed down as heirlooms.
- Since Salmonids have to supply their own weapons, boss Salmonids mainly consist of aristocrats as their equipment is very expensive.
- After emerging victorious from battle, a big celebration takes place at the fatherland, which involves makeshift fireworks, noisemakers, and parades.
- Their society is basically Ancient Rome, but everything is made of scrap metal found on beaches or floating around in the ocean.
- Golden Eggs are actually unhatched Salmonlings. Each individual egg is extremely valuable, and due to their rarity, only the strongest Salmonids are trusted to care for them until they can be sent back to the seclusion of the fatherland, where they are forbidden to leave for the sake of their species.
- While Salmonlings alone are a rarity, there is only a 1/10 chance of them growing into a bipedal Salmonling. Other Salmonlings resemble mermaids and although they can swim in water, they cannot swim in ink.
kthxbye

HEY WHAT IS WITH YOU IMPOSTERNIZING AS ME!

 

[HighColorSunset]

OK, so according to the Splatoon wiki, in Russian, the "Ouch" signal literally translates to "Misfortune," so if Octolings are generally considered "Russian" by the fanbase (especially after being confirmed to speak broken English by Nintendo), imagine Octolings shouting "Misfortune! Misfortune!" during turf war, and confusing some Inklings. :P

 

[agent8(hachi)]

I FOUND THIS ZELDA POSTER IN MANTA MARINA

 

[agent8(hachi)]

 

[Cephalobro]

Some of my headcanons for other species:

-In sports where a fighting style is involved like boxing, kung-fu or wrestling, the typical participants are Betta Fish due to their nature to want to fight. Betta Fish siblings actually never get along with each other.

-Tiger Sharks are still wild animals, but evolution caused their fins to become legs made for running, this is an advantage for the predator to catch its prey.

-Certain species of Sea Cucumbers are actually kept as pets.

-Sea Horses are often used to be ridden by other species in the countryside.

-The microbes that consume ink left on the ground, walls, etc. are actually Planktons that evolved to live off of skirmishes of cephalopod species.

-Whales are banned from entering densely populated cities due to their immense size being a huge danger to the inhabitants in such a closed space.

-Jellyfish have control on their stingers, able to turn off the stinging whenever they want to and only turn on to catch small prey or to defend themselves. Though, they don't mind being pushed around.

 

[HighColorSunset]

Headcanons for appearance (these are also based on observation):

Inklings tend to have:
-Low to medium nasal bridge, shorter noses (a bit of a "turn-up nose" going on)
-Rounder eyes
-Sort of V-shaped faces
-Pointy ears; can be either normal, droopy or elf-like
-Shorter, wider hands with square fingers
-Longer, straighter tentacles, smooth, with "baggy" ends
-Eyebrows tend to be rounder and thicker
-Tend to be skinny and lanky
-Long, skinny arms and legs
-Smile and laugh a lot, but sometimes it's just for show; tend to smirk or look cheerful or competitive in battle

Octolings on the other hand:
-Medium to high nasal bridge, longer noses (some look a bit "hook-nosed")
-Almond-shaped eyes
-Rounder faces
-Round and/or floppy ears
-Long and thin hands and feet; pointy fingers and toes
-Shorter, curlier tentacles, suckered, that come to a point
-Thinner and sharper eyebrows
-Girls tend to be more curvy; boys are a bit stockier
-Octolings have longer legs
-Limbs are about the same length as Inklings; thicker legs, arms are about the same
-Don't smile much; smiles are usually genuine; tend to look either determined or happy in battle (the ones who look happy tend to be having fun)

Also, just for fun, laughs:

Inkling Girl: "Ha ha HA!" (loud, excited laughter; some even chortle)
Octoling Girl: "Ahaha~" or "Ufufu~" (girlish giggle; often that is actually their real laugh)
Inkling Boy: "Heh heh." (tend to chuckle or laugh loud and hard)
Octoling Boy: "Ha ha ha!" (hearty belly laugh or chuckle)

 

[Cephalobro]

The urban legends of the Splatoon world are often scary on purpose. Examples include ghost activity at night (appearance is often mistaken because it's just a Jellyfish glowing in the dark), skeletal sharks coming to life and many other scary urban legend kinds of stuff.

 

[HighColorSunset]

Headcanon: Octarian Accents

-Octarians have an accent in Inkling similar to a Slav speaking English in that they roll/tap R's and pronounce L's in the back of the throat. However, they can pronounce "w" and "h" (there are canonically those letters in the language). (rather than "voomy" it's more like "woumi" or "oumi" (the sylable "wu" could be hard to pronounce for them)) (Marina has been practicing for a while, so maybe she uses regular R but still "pulls" her L's?)
-Octolings also tend to get intonation wrong; they might say "I am going to the store" instead of "I am going to the store" for example. (I like to think think Marina still has this problem. "It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!")
-They will also get words wrong, or use malapropisms; the amiibo saying it's nice to "meat" you is a good example. They will also use big words or formal-sounding phrases unnecessarily, "let-the-backside-be-kicked" style. (Octoling Octopus: "Let us apprehend the memory with camera picture.") I like to think Marina calling Sean's food "the licious" is possibly another; perhaps she doesn't know "delicious" is one word?
-Grammar mistakes are caused by actual Octarian grammatical features, such as using "the" and the present continuous (-ing) for different reasons

 

[Cephalobro]

Some headcanons about Octarian military:

-The Octamazons (or enemy Octolings) are actually just a tiny fraction of the overall Octoling population. They are the only Octolings being sent out to fight invaders because the Octolings from the larger groups are needed to keep the Octarian species going.

-The lesser Octarians serve as bodyguards for Octolings who aren't part of the elite unit, typically being used as shields themselves to allow the Octolings to escape.

-This protective behavior is what allowed many Octolings to escape to Inkopolis without being attacked and the reason why Agent 8 got attacked is because the fight with Agent 3 drew the attention of the attacker.

 

[HighColorSunset]

More language stuff:
-Inklings are usually much, much worse at Octarian than Octolings are at Inkling, probably because they don't care as much. Basically, "Floor bad danger. You go up." :P However, much like there are Octolings fluent in Inkling, there are Inklings who are fluent in Octarian as well.
-Octolings tend to have strange grammar and intonation but an extensive vocabulary; Inklings on the other hand tend to have to make do with few words, as there are few Octarian textbooks and Octarian is spoken less on the surface.
-A common YouTube-esque challenge is for an Octoling and their Inkling friend to spend the entire day speaking the other's language, especially if they're usually heard speaking one or the other. This is especially difficult for Inklings, who don't have the same exposure to other languages unless they're part of the Squidbeak Splatoon or, uh, hang out with jellyfish or something.
-Inkling is written left to right. Octarian is written left to right, or up to down and right to left like East Asian languages.
-Octarian is considered a very difficult and complicated language to learn, probably on the level of Finnish and Russian, but much like English, Inkling has some strange spelling and grammar rules that make it hard as well.
-Octarians tend to write Inkling in thin, curvy strokes, while Inklings write Octarian with thick, geometric lines.

An idea for separating Inkling and Octarian in comics and stuff would be to write Inkling in printing and Octarian in cursive or something? Octarian-accented Inkling could be written in curvy letters but not quite cursive.

 

[HighColorSunset]

Octarian military and culture hcs:
-Training is often intensive and dangerous, and trainees are often told to get back up and fight after being badly injured.
-Soldier rations include hardtack, instant/carry-along meals, dried fruit, pickled vegetables and preserved seafood. Food, having to be conserved and preserved, is often made to last a long time, but other the fruit and vegetables, which they of course shouldn't live on, it tastes terrible.
-Octarians are often taught music, as help is needed to create the tracks backing missions. Electronic music is more efficient than playing organic instruments, as you only need one person to make a song, which explains why many Octarians are DJs.
-Octolings usually have roles in the military. There are many soldiers and sleeper agents, but also many engineers, DJs, and programmers. Even within the soldiers, there are snipers, speed fighters and the like.
-Some Octolings know useless bits and pieces of human languages from seeing things left by humans.

 

[Cephalobro]

Some Octarian biological headcanons as well as some historical headcanons:

-It's actually considered very weird by the Octarian society that some Octarians can become Octolings. This is mainly because Octarians becoming Octolings requires more organs to be developed inside the Octarian like sexual reproductive organs, hearts, etc. as well as major development on the outside as well such as humanoid arms and fingers.

-"Stretching" into an Octoling is actually extremely taxing and painful on the Octarian as a result because it's forcing the body into changing into something else rather than letting the natural way of development happen.

-While it is natural for major changes happening to the Octarian's body as they start to become an Octoling, most Octarians won't "stretch" because of the excruciating pain and also to not devalue the importance of Octolings in Octarian culture, especially since Octolings who hatched from eggs would feel offended that just any Octarian would just become them in the first place.

-As such, the only place in which big numbers of Octarians who become Octolings is the Octarian military due to the heavy need of getting advanced troops.

-Also, it is not even guaranteed that an Octarian can become an Octoling because the body itself simply can't support such a development, often leading in death when attempted, this is actually very common amongst Octarians, which is yet another reason why Octolings are really important to them.

-Whenever the Octarian species become endangered, Octolings sexually reproduce until there are enough eggs that will restore the Octoling population, both the eggs on the outside and inside of the females are counted together, which after their children get the ability to create Octarians by cutting their tentacles off, both they and their parents do it in unison and just like mating and egg-laying, cutting tentacles happens en masse across throughout their society.

-There are many cases in which Octarians became endangered, the Great Turf War is one of them, another is the deterioration of domes, as many domes in Octo Valley became uninhabitable, this is going to start happening to the Octo Canyon domes as well. Last but not least is also Commander Tartar, who captured many Octarians and sanitized them.

-These combined events made Octolings in Octarian society even more important, which is why the other Octarians do their best to protect Octolings at all costs.

 

[HighColorSunset]

So it's probably a good thing that Octolings are immigrating to Inkopolis, as this gives them a place they can live safely.

 

[HighColorSunset]

Many young Octolings seem to be hyper-fluent in Inkling, which makes them seem fresh and modern compared to those who struggle. Some of these have worked on the language for a very long time, while others worked on pronunciation and grammar first. Octolings who speak "broken" Inkling can actually have wider vocabularies than those who are fluent.

 

[HighColorSunset]

Octarian Phonetics

Vowels:
A, a: like "a" in "father"
E, e: "E" in "ten"
I, i: "ee" in "sleep"
O, o: like "oh"
U, u: Like "u" in "super" but less rounded
Y, y: Similar to "i"

Consonants:

B, P, CH, S, SH, F, K, G, V, Z, W, J, Y pronounced like in English
T and D are soft/palatal
"Ts" consonant
"H" is always pronounced, like in Finnish
"L" is pronounced slightly in the back since it is usually used at the end of words
"R" is either tapped or slightly rolledwords
Consonants can be doubled
There is no Q or X; C isn't used by itself

 

[Cephalobro]

Octolings, unlike Inklings, actually see trash and junk as part of an unbuilt machine, as such, Octolings are more than happy to pick up random cans lying around so they can be used to build weapons or machines. Some Blasters were actually made this way and were anonymously sold to Sheldon, with an agreement that the seller isn't to be known by the public by putting existing brand logos on them if needed.

 

[HighColorSunset]

I wouldn't be surprised if Octolings worked for Custom and/or Deco.